Florence J. Achieng Oloo (photo: Santiago Quevedo)
The women who wear jeans and, purses over their shoulders, walk quickly through the streets of Nairobi or browse from store to store, don’t look anything like those who, in the deepest parts of Kenya, carry plastic containers on their heads with the water they need for their humble, adobe-walled, metal plate roofed-homes. Many of the former know their rights. Of the latter, far fewer.
That they know these rights and make them count is the goal of Florence J. Achieng Oloo, the driving force behind the Women Empowerment Program Jakana-Kenyawegi in the Kisumu region, which borders Lake Victoria. Oloo, who has a PhD in Chemical Sciences, was recently in Madrid to accept the 14th Harambee Award for the Promotion and Equality of African Women from the non-profit Harambee, which carries out projects in the Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.
Among Oloo’s passions, for which she moves heaven and earth to find funding, is promoting the training of African researchers “so that science is carried out ethically in its many fields: social sciences, medicinal sciences, mathematical sciences.” But she has another passion, far away from any lab, which is more hands-on (literally): working with women in the rural areas of her country to help reaffirm their dignity.
It all started in the town of Kenyawegi, which she visited about 10 years ago, and where she observed the degrading situation of girls who, with no prospects for personal development, were forced to marry very young or practiced prostitution to earn some form of income.
“In this environment, women have many difficulties. I have worked a lot with university students, with women from urban areas, and they don’t have as many problems as those who live in rural areas. I’ll give you an example: a 17-year-old girl finished high school and her mother didn’t have money to send her to university. She told her: ‘I have done what I could, but I have other children to raise. You have to do what you can.’”
“What becomes of these girls? They go to men, for money in exchange for sex, money that they use to cover their most basic needs. This happens all over the country. We saw that this could not continue.”
As Oloo explains, she spoke with several friends, they prepared a proposal and knocked on the doors of the Kianda Foundation, a private organization focused on the promotion of women in Kenya. They secured money for a year’s work and got down to work: the first class of female students were recruited.
Invest, create, save, repeat…
The Women Empowerment Program, which began in 2022, welcomes women between the ages of 17 and 30 for three months; about 30 per class. They give them job training – they teach them to cook, how to market things to the public– and offer them advice and tools to start small businesses. Classes are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, four hours each day, and always in the morning, since in the afternoon they have to go to the market, draw water, or do other chores. In addition, they learn about hygiene and home organization, and about food security. The main idea, says Oloo, is that they gain self-esteem and understand their dignity; that they know that they are not objects, but human beings.”
“Now we are trying to find backing to help them start their businesses, and we are thinking about which doors we’re going to knock on”
“After three months the results were evident. Some, when they arrived to the program, had very little self-respect: they came with dirty clothes, disheveled hair… A short time later, we already saw them change.”
Shortly before starting with the second group of 30 women – “we can’t take more than that at one time because we need to be able to give them personalized attention” – Oloo tells us that some of the inaugural graduates had already started their own businesses, and that one of them, with the money she had saved, paid her own tuition to go back to school. The cycle had to be broken, Oloo points out, because otherwise, it would continue from one generation of women to another and another. “And that can’t happen.”
Do the women pay attention in class? “Intensely so. In addition, we tell them that they have to pay something for our training. It’s very little, barely a dollar, but it’s so they value it. Some pay the amount in installments.”
Currently, the program does not give participants financial resources to get started, only the skills to do so. According to Oloo, with what they learn, the girls invest what little they have to buy the tools they need to make something to sell, and with the profit, let’s say 100 shillings (0.70 euros), they allocate .20 to their business, .20 to their homes, .20 to savings, and the investment grows. “Now we are trying to find backing to help them start their businesses, and we are thinking about which doors we’re going to knock on.” Any government help? “Nothing; the state does not participate. We won’t get anything from the government for what we’re doing.”
Greater autonomy, greater respect at home
There’s no time to waste. Oloo prefers to focus on the impact of the program on the personal and family lives of the women, who “are changing things at home,” she says. “Several of these young women are married, and the husbands notice the change. They are small things, but they say a lot. There’s even a change in attitude. They are more aware of their dignity, that they are people capable of standing up for themselves; that, for example, they can use technology to support their family – we have telecommunications companies that offer cheap mobile phones to them. In short, they don’t have to depend on strange men, because they can earn their own money and save it. It’s not much, but they can start saving.”
With personal growth comes autonomy, the greatest respite… And respect. “I have seen it with my own eyes. Many came to the graduation with their husbands. They tell you: ‘The house is cleaner; she is cooking better’, and instead of going out to drink, they stay home. ‘I am very proud of my wife. I wasn’t before,’ some tell you. Now they respect each other.”
What about situations of domestic abuse? “There are still violent situations, but not as many as before. These situations come out when there is a lot of stress in the family: when there is no money because she isn’t bringing any home, because she depends on her husband, and he has a very precarious job. And with stress comes violence. Now, since the women are doing something, even if it’s only something little, their husbands respect them.”
I take it that the Harambee award will be used to reinforce this initiative, which is already planning to create a nursery where the women can leave their children during classes –– but also to replicate the program in other rural towns? “All the prize money will go to the program, and it will help us both with next year’s course and with our aim of expanding. It is a help and I am enormously grateful to Harambee for it,” she concludes.